Washington DC is not only the United States capitol but also an undisputed symbol of the nations freedom. By not including a memorial to slavery amongst the great memorials of the country, the nation is basically making a farce of the freedom that Washington DC embodies. Without slavery America would not be the country that is today. Today we thank and honor our founding fathers for creating many documents that came together to establish the United States of America. What we neglect to honor is the hard work that went on beneath those papers and enabled those quills to be pushed. An inconvenient and ironic truth to even fathom is the fact that the United States, a country of freedom, power, and glory, was built on the backs of thousands of African Americans who were forced to work stripped of their freewill. Taken from the freedom of their homeland and being bonded, physically and metaphorically, by shackles to a country of emerging freedom, the American Slave experienced ultimate degradation. The United States many not have a memorial to slavery because it is not a highlight of the nations history. American Slavery needs a memorial because it is a part of the United States history that should never be forgotten or repeated. With this memorial I plan to accomplish many things. The memorial will serve as a stark reminder for the torment and suffering that the slaves of America endured. The memorial will too serve as a reminder that no one should have been or should ever again be treated with such indignity. The memorial will embody the suffering of the slave and rejoice in the triumphs of their battle for freedom. The memorial will educate future generations in hopes that such events with never be forgotten. The Slave Block Memorial is based of two contrasting and chronological moments. In the first the visitor experiences ultimate humiliation. In the second utter liberation. The site. The Slave Block Memorial is placed in Freedom Plaza, Washington DC for three main reasons. The first reason is that Freedom Plaza is one block away from the square where the main slave market in Washington DC was located. The second is the fact that the location is on axis with the Capitol Building, “freedom central” of America. The third is due to the pre-existing elements on the site. The main attraction of Freedom Plaza is a portion of Pierre Charles L'Enfant's orthographic plan for Washington DC. The segment shows the “L” shaped connection and the diagonal Pennsylvania Avenue connection between the Capitol Building and the White house. While creating this “ideally pristine” plan for the beginnings of America L’Enfant neglected to show the reality of the situation that was not totally ideal. I plan to harshly imprint onto this plan a reminder that the founding of this nation of freedom was neither ideal nor pristine. The experience. Entering the site all that can be seen is a white podium upon a hill of green grass. As a visitor you begin to walk towards this site wanting to climb this green hill and stand at this shining podium. But you cant. As you walk towards it you stumble upon a hole that dives thirty feet into the ground. You realize that in order to experience the almost pastoral scene across the hole you must go down into the hole. You begin your steep, downward, and spiraling decent to the bottom following a structured line of footprint impressions. Examining your immediate surroundings you see the beginnings of what appears to be a timeline engraved into the dark marble wall, starting with “1619: Twenty African slaves are brought to Jamestown, VA.” The timeline continues and you begin to read intergraded quotes and lyrics expressing the oppression and woe of slavery. You look down to the bottom of the pit to see someone kneeling on a platform in a fountain of chaotic moving water. You do not know why and continue your descent. As you approach the bottom of the pit you realize several things. It has gotten noticeably darker and more cramped, the events happening on the timeline are climaxing in emotional turmoil, and the fountain as made the bottom of this pit increasingly loud. You make it to the bottom of the pit and step up onto the platform where the person was kneeling before. You look up and see many eyes looking down at you ominously. You see the timeline of grief and the quotes of oppression wrapping around above you. You hear the voices of the other visitors ricocheting off the walls and coming together with the noise of the sloshing fountain. It sounds like thousands of people yelling at you. You flinch when you feel something or someone grab your leg from below. When you look down you see the culprit, a slash of water, which jumped out of the roaring vortex like fountain. While looking down you see imprints in the ground. You fall to your knees because you understand the humiliation and degradation that the slaves experienced while they stood on the slave block, surrounded by hundreds of eyes and encompassed by deafening screams. You have hit rock bottom stripped of dignity. The only way is up. You look up to see a tunnel. You push yourself to your feet and begin to walk towards it. The tunnel is a steep incline towards a light. You read a quote from Fredrick Douglass that says, “Without struggle there can be no progress.” With this you begin to climb towards the light. As you climb you read a timeline that shows events working up to the abolishment of slavery. You make it to the end of the tunnel and enter into the light. Up ahead you see the hill with the white podium at its crest. At your feet you see the imprints of footprints walking in many different directions. You continue to climb. Once you reach the podium you stand triumphant. You look at the top of the podium and read the engraving, “Because I have been to the mountaintop. -Martin Luther King, Jr.” You look back up to see the Capitol Building in the distance down Pennsylvania Avenue. A sense of ultimate liberation comes over you. These are the things that I want The Slave Block Memorial, the memorial to the American Slave, to embody.